Manchester City Balls: Time To Sack Pelligrini

THE betrayal of Roberto Mancini might just be coming back to haunt Manchester City.

Betrayal?

You can barely find a picture of the man who delivered their first trophy in 35 years and first title in 44 years around the Etihad now.

Not many pictures of Mancini on flags and scarves in the stands last time we looked.

‘Bobby Manc’ has been erased from history as the new ‘holistic’ approach under Manuel Pellegrini takes hold. Yet the danger is City’s brave new world under the Chilean is about to come crashing down. In the space of four days this week hopes of a Quadruple have been reduced to a Double and the odds are they will end up with a Single — and the least desirable of all the trophies they aimed for.

They won the League Cup. They are hot favourites to win the league title.

Last season was not great for Mancini but City finished second and reached a second FA Cup final in three seasons.

So…

On Saturday, as Soriano left the directors’ box following the 1-0 defeat to Wigan, a fan shouted ‘Bring back Mancini’. The fan was immediately surrounded by three security men and told not to shout Mancini’s name in front of the chief executive. Bizarre. But very soon there could be more than one lone voice in the crowd.

And that other voice belonged to another opinion-to-deadline pundit on Mancini, the man who was widely reported to have lost the dressing room.